Overview The Cooper River Bridge Run is a 10K that starts on Coleman Boulevard in Mount Pleasant, climbs over the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge on closed lanes and finishes in downtown Charleston, with the field capped at 40,000 runners and walkers since 2007. By finisher count it has been ranked the third-largest 10K in the United States. It runs on a Saturday morning in spring, and the week around it adds a two-day Health and Wellness Expo, a Kids Run, a Corporate Challenge and a Finish Festival in Marion Square. A nonprofit board drawn from eight partner organizations, among them the City of Charleston, the College of Charleston, Charleston County Parks and the Charleston Medical Society, oversees the race. On site Race morning starts early: free shuttle buses carry runners to the start between 5 and 6 a.m., and a ferry runs as a second option. The field goes off in waves, runs about three kilometers down Coleman Boulevard, then takes the bridge's northbound lanes south across the Cooper River, drops onto Meeting Street and turns through downtown by way of King and Wentworth Streets. An elite wheelchair race runs on the same course. After the finish the Finish Festival takes over Marion Square with bands and vendor tents through the late morning. Audience The race's mailing list holds about 300,000 people across all 50 states, most of them in the tri-state area around Charleston. Companies enter teams in the Corporate Challenge, and walkers share the course with the competitive field. Talent and Influencers Kenyan runners have taken most of the elite titles since the early 1990s. James Koskei set the men's course record of 27:40 in 2000, Elana Myers the women's record of 31:19 in 1997, and Hermin Garic the wheelchair record of 22:58 in 2021. Oprah Winfrey ran it in 1994 and finished in 55:48, and Bill Murray fired the starting cannon in 1997. Track record Dr. Marcus Newberry of the Medical University of South Carolina started the race in 1978, when 766 finishers crossed the old Silas Pearman Bridge. It moved to the Grace Memorial Bridge in 1980, back to the Pearman in 1995, the first year it passed 10,000 runners, and onto the new Ravenel Bridge in 2006, when 45,663 people registered. The race won South Carolina's Governor's Cup for tourism impact in 2019, and the organization puts race-weekend economic impact at about $33 million. There was no race in 2020. Brand presence The sponsor levels are named for parts of the bridge, from Span down through Steel Cable and Beam, with separate positions on the Finish Festival, the Kids Run and a television program that two sponsors co-present. Brands sell, sample and hand out merchandise from expo booths and from 10-by-10 tents in Marion Square, and sponsors are carried in the race's printed materials, its online magazine and mailings to its list.